Crawling on the Interstate coming west to my house, reminded me of why I don't mind the auto

I hear you. The Micra's automatic is certainly pleasant enough to drive - essentially seamless shifts at low engine load. And it actually has fairly aggressive programming to get into lockup and hold higher gears.

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It needs their latest CVT, then it would cut the gap in half maybe more.

Yep. Ironically, both of the Micra's closest competitors -- Chevy Spark and Mitsu Mirage -- use Nissan-sourced (JATCO) CVT's. And they have much better ratings than the Micra.

However one Micra owner pointed out to me that there's an argument to be made for the old-school 4-speed automatic in terms of total cost of ownership over the long haul: the manual will probably need a pricy clutch replacement in its lifetime, while the CVT needs expensive periodic fluid changes. The 4-speed auto needs neither. YMMV.